re thinking the "time out" chair...

I have been trying "new" ideas lately. OK they are not new exactly new ideas, just new to me. (= People always ask me how I get our children to "behave" and I really do not know how to answer them. I tend to give this answer much thought! What do I do that makes people want my opinion on handling childrens behavior?! The one thing I catch myself telling people is that I expect a LOT from these children of ours. I really have had HIGH expectations of them ever since they have been little. I think that since it has always been them & me during the day I tend to talk to them as I would talk to other adults. My hubby constantly tells me "They are just kids..." but I do not think they should get away with certain behaviors just because they are kids. Is this the right thing to do? I do not know. I tend to think it works for me. Now I am not saying they are angels because they are not! I am just VERY consistant & like I said expect a LOT from them! I say what I mean & mean what I say! In the end they do listen for the most part. I mean they are two and a half so being WILD is to be expected! LOL! Over the past few months I started reading a few parenting books to see if I could improve my parenting style. I mean you can never be too old to learn a few new tricks! LOL! Well one thing I learned in particular was the use of the "time out" chair. We invested in one of these! I found a VERY cute hand carved one at our local HomeGoods store. {LOVE that place!} I thought when all else fails we will use the "time out" chair. Everyone seems to use this method with their kids but does it really work? In one book, God forbid me I cannot remember the name, they say that "Time Out" should not be a form of punishment, it should be a place to reflect. Hmm... Don't penalize them give them their space to "re group". SO here I am having the tribe go to the "Time Out" chair & think about why they behaved the way they did. This is a VERY hard practice to do when you are programmed a different way! Each time they act out I tell them to go to their chair which I placed in the hallway away from everyone. It gives them some quiet time to think about what made them do something "ugly". I should say that the others tend to gather around the "bad one" in moral support to give them company! Very cute to watch! It took awhile to get them to actually learn the concept of leaving the child that was being "ugly" there ALONE. SO far so good. Now they actually tell each other when they should go take a seat! ha! I realize this is just the beginning but I'm really starting to enjoy this...

re-thinking the "time out" chair...